30 September 2013

Crazy schedule and posting light over the next few days. On a writng deadline and headed overseas later this week to Germany and Spain. I'll be working in Barcelona and then will spend a few days in Munich.

AIDS Vaccine Barcelona 2013 has awarded me an international media fellowship. #AIDSVax2013 will be the world's "largest international conference of researchers, advocates, clinicians, private sector partners and public health experts" focused exclusively on HIV vaccine research. The fellowship is sponsored by Global HIV Vaccine Enterprise, the Catalan Program for HIV Vaccine Research and the government of Catalonia. I'm very excited and humbled. Only four or five American journos were awarded fellowships.

At that time], Huntley said she had no idea who might be making the threat. But some blame seems to be assigned in this latest mailer, which is marked "Shirley Huntley for New York State Senate". It says, among other things: "There are forces that have invaded our community who: Have threatened Shirley Huntley, our hardworking state Senator; Have contributed more than $100,000 from outside the district to her opponent; Care about one issue only -- gay marriage."

“Marriage equality is an issue where I stand on, but in the grand scheme
of things it shouldn’t be the dialogue we’re having with the
residents,” Nunes tells the Leader-Observer. "I think my opponent is
using that as a tool to hurt this campaign."

Sampson has angered gay advocates with his pledge to support all Senate Dems seeking reelection, including the six who voted against the same-sex marriage bill, killing it, 38 to 24. ... The LGBT community is especially concerned by Sampson's support of Queens Sen. Shirley Huntley, a "no" voter facing a primary challenge from gay-marriage supporter Lynn Nunes. Sampson gave Huntley $9,500 from his own campaign cash and tried unsuccessfully to prevent the Empire State Pride Agenda, New York's largest LGBT organization, from endorsing Nunes. Sampson is also supporting Bronx Sen. Ruben Diaz Sr., the most vocal opponent of gay marriage in the Democratic conference. ... Sampson voted "yes" last December, but he won't pledge to bring the bill up for another vote.

Adds Stonewall Democrats President Joe Hagelmann: "I don't think [Sampson] is a homophobe by any stretch of the imagination, but we'd like to see him working on our side a little bit harder."

Later today, the Empire State Pride Agenda and the Human Rights Campaign are expected to endorse pro-equality challenger Lynn Nunes, reports gay City News. Nunes who is challenging Huntley in the September 14 Democratic primary and is racking up support and cash

Nunes, a 25-year-old real estate broker, came within four votes of unseating 28th District City Councilman Thomas White, Jr., a 14-year veteran on the Council, in last September’s Democratic primary. Observers of this year’s Senate race ... said that Brooklyn Senator John Sampson, the Democratic Majority Conference leader, has pressured marriage equality advocates not to endorse Nunes. Others have pointed to efforts by Sampson to convince gay groups that Huntley can be brought around on the issue. Prior to last December’s marriage vote, however, the New York Times reported that the senator told the poet Maya Angelou, "If they gave me a million dollars, tax-free, I just wouldn’t vote for it." City Councilman
Daniel Dromm, an out gay Nunes supporter from Jackson Heights, told Gay
City News, “[Huntley's] campaigning against us on this issue.”

Nunes was earlier endorsed by the Lesbian & Gay Democratic Club of Queens, the Stonewall Democratic Club of New York City, and the Jim Owles club. In addition to Dromm, he has support on the City Council from Rosie Mendez, an out lesbian who represents Manhattan’s Lower East Side. [Sources say] City Council Speaker Christine Quinn’s ... will endorse Huntley’s challenger in the near future.

Nunes also has more cash—$115,000 on hand versus $46,000 for Huntley, reports Gay City News.

"For those of us
running against incumbents, we need to let the gay community know that
we’re viable, we’re credible and we’re right on the issues," Nunes told The Advocate.
“We don’t have time to waste."

17 March 2010

Former New York State Senator Hiram Monserrate, who was expelled from the Senate after being convicted of assaulting and slashing his girlfriend, lost the bid to regain his seat to Assemblyman José R. Peralta in the Queens, New York special election. The election had been marked by anti-gay rhetoric from Monserrate and his supporters.

"The election followed a fierce, if brief, campaign in which a debate over same-sex marriage, which Mr. Peralta favors and Mr. Monserrate opposes, often overshadowed discussions on issues that are vital to many of the largely Hispanic district’s working-class and immigrant residents, like affordable health care and school overcrowding. With 94 percent of the vote counted, unofficial returns from the overwhelmingly Democratic 13th State Senate District showed Mr. Peralta with 66 percent and Mr. Monserrate with 27 percent. The Republican candidate, Robert Beltrani, an administrative law judge, came in third with 7 percent."

After promising to support marriage equality, Monserrate became one of the eight shameful Senate "Democrats" who voted against it. Only days ago, Peralta, who supported marriage equality three times in the Assembly, said the special election would become a "litmus test" and he would be the first new vote toward passing a same-sex marriage bill in the Senate. Peralta told Gay City News: "The reason that I am running in this race and the reason I’m getting attacked left and right is because of the gay issue, "Peralta [said]. "State Senator George Onorato, another of the eight Democrats, has announced he will retire. That is going to be vote number two. If we’re successful in taking out Frank Padavan, that is vote number three."

11 March 2010

New York Assemblyman José Peralta debuts his latest campaign commercial in the special election being held Tuesday for the Senate seat formerly held by the disgraced Hiram Monserrate. The spot opens with surveillance video of Monserrate attacking and slashing his girlfriend. Brilliant.

10 March 2010

Actress and activist Cynthia Nixon recorded a spot to support Fight Back New York, the new political action committee targeting former New York state Senator Hiram Monserrate and others who voted against marriage equality.

The "Sex and the City" actress says in part: "I am a lifelong New Yorker but I don't have the rights that most of my
friends and neighbors do. I'm engaged to the woman I love, but on
December 2, the New York State Senate voted against my right to marry
her. Last year prior to the vote, so many of us went up to Albany to speak
with our state senators about why marriage equality is so important to us and to our families. They didn't get the message. They still think that it's okay to treat me
and hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers like second-class citizens. I'm not okay with that."

09 March 2010

Disgraced former New York Senator Hiram Monserrate is ramping up the anti-gay rhetoric in next Tuesday's special election against challenger and Assemblyman Jose Peralta. Churches and evangelicals in Monserrate's former Queens district are distributing more despicable gay-baiting flyers to mobilize support for Monserrate and against pro-equality Peralta.

The flyer casts Monserrate's opponent, Assemblyman Jose Peralta, as
the "leading spokesperson for the gay community in NYC" and the tool of
"mega rich gay fanatics" who are pushing for the legalization of
same-sex marriage. It also claims he was "affectionately called Peralta the gay
caballero" at a recent LGBT fundraiser. (Caballero means "knight",
"cavalier" or "horseman", according to Merriam Webster). This was also
the title of a movie released in 1940, apparently, and could be
construed as a slur.

01 March 2010

Gay philanthropist Tim Gill and other LGBT advocates with deep pockets have launched Fight Back New York, a political action committee that will aggressively target New York State senators that opposed marriage equality.

The first target is Hiram Monserrate, one of eight shameful "Democrats" who
voted against marriage equality and who was recently convicted of a vicious
assault on his girlfriend. The Queens Democrat was expelled by the Senate on February 9 and is running to reclaim his seat. The group's first mailing features stills from the surveillance video of Monserrate dragging his injured girlfriend out of their building. The slashing of her face and dragging left her requiring more than 20 stitches. The New York Times adds: "In the three weeks that remain before the election, Fight Back New York
expects to send out at least five different fliers, upwards of 100,000
pieces of mail."

Disgusted Democrats and Republicans joined together 53-8 to make Monserrate the fourth sitting state lawmaker ever expelled - and the first since 1861. "Sen. Monserrate's abusive and unlawful conduct damages the integrity of the New York state Senate and demonstrates a lack of fitness to serve in this body," Sen. Eric Schneiderman (D-Manhattan) said after the vote. Monserrate said he expects to be a senator for "many, many years" and promised an immediate legal challenge, maintaining it's up to the voters to judge him...The defiant Queens Democrat told the senators he hopes none of them slip up one day and find themselves "at the mercy of certain colleagues with unfortunate political agendas." He also apologized to his colleagues and asked for their "forbearance and foregiveness."

Monserrate was "booed" as he was escorted from the chamber, the newspaper adds.

Gov. David Paterson on Tuesday night immediately called a special election for March 16 to fill Monserrate's seat. Assemblyman Jose Peralta announced a primary challenge to Monserrate after the lopsided marriage vote. Peralta has a stellar record on LGBT rights and voted three times to pass the marriage equality bill in the Assembly and twice voted to pass the transgender civil rights bill, the Gender Expression
Non-Discrimination Act.

During the holidays, anti-gay activists plastered hundreds of despicable flyers around Monserrate's Queens district to "thank" him for his "no" vote. And you may recall that gay activists crashed Monserrate's holiday party and shouted "How can wife beaters get married and we can't? Hiram
believes marriage should be between one man, one woman and a broken
bottle!" Watch the video again WHEN YOU JUMP ...